Friday, May 20, 2016

To help commemorate The Rap Sheet’s fast-approaching 10th anniversary, I’m going to engage in what I hope will be a bit of educational fun—and I would like you to join me. The assignment here is to choose 10 of your favorite crime, mystery, or thriller novels, all of them originally published during the last 10 years, from January 1, 2006, until now. (No paperback reprints, please.) There aren’t any perfect answers. The works needn’t be famous, nor must they demonstrate your literary taste or fondness for the esoteric. It’s only necessary that you enjoyed the books you select.

This isn’t an easy task, I’ll grant you; my initial roll of possible titles ran to 33. I had to brutally cast away many books I have said nice things about over the last decade, including J. Robert Janes’ Bellringer (2012), David Morrell’s Inspector of the Dead (2015), and Laura Lippman’s After I’m Gone (2014), in order to make the 10-count. But the rules are what they are, and I had to follow them.

Now it’s your turn. In the Comments section at the end of this post, please feel free to submit your own list of 10 choice crime novels published between 2006 and 2016. Or submit five titles, or even just one or two. The point is that, while much is made of this genre’s classic novels, modern works can often have just as much influence on our memories and our fondness for this field of literature.

6 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz
said...

Really a difficult task but here it goes:I Am Pilgrim by Terry HayesThe Thicket by Joe R. LansdaleOstland by David ThomasA Quiet Flame by Phillip KerrLittle Elvises by Tim HallinanThe Devil All the Time by Daniel Ray PollockThe Power of the Dog by Don WinslowThe Cartel by Don WinslowBefore the Poison by Peter RobinsonThe Tourist by Olen Steinhauser

Ordinary Grace by William Kent KruegerThe Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee BurkeLight of the World by James Lee BurkeMr. Mercedes by Stephen KingThe Ranger by Ace AtkinsAnother Man's Moccasins by Craig JohnsonStar Island by Carl HiaasenA Troubled Man by Henning MankellWorth Dying For by Lee Child

My first list included a number of the novels listed above. I agree that this is difficult. I have restricted it to books I have read and were published in the United States between 2006-2016. My list includes the first of a trilogy, one Australian book later published in US in 2006, one written in the 1960s but published in the last ten years, and one Mexican translated work that is outside the usual mystery field but is ultimately about violence and death. In no particular order:

I thought I would have a hard time coming up with ten because I read more older books than new but, I ended up having to cull some off the list.

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters An Empty Death by Laura WilsonA Lily of the Field by John LawtonA Quiet Flame by Philip KerrThe Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael ChabonA Night of Long Knives by Rebecca CantrellBlood of the Wicked by Leighton GageThe Tourist by Olen SteinhauerSlow Horses by Mick HerronLock In by John Scalzi

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